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By Roslyn Courtney
People experience new leadership opportunities at various points in their careers. Based on my interviews with 80 top executives, I’ve defined a leadership model that’s effective and learnable. I call it “The New Leader – Beyond Hierarchy and Power”.
New Leaders operate differently from other executives. They focus on what they can achieve with their people, not on the power or attention they can garner for themselves. Even early in their careers, they reach beyond the limits of a defined role.
The New Leader approach isn’t just for CEOs and senior executives. It’s useful for any manager who wants to deliver stellar results and for aspiring leaders who are interested in making a lasting contribution to their organizations.
Hallmarks of the New Leader
- Steadfast Passion: New Leaders pursue daunting challenges in a way that reaches the right solution. They win big with integrity.
- Inclusive Culture: New Leaders engage and empower diverse talents and teams, even tapping wide-ranging constituencies outside their direct control.
- Global Proaction: New Leaders think and plan for big results and implement brilliantly, creating a uniquely effective approach to strategy, organization and execution.
- Continuous Exploration: New Leaders always seek success, stretching and growing to transform businesses, skill sets and capabilities and their leadership.
The New Leader Model in Action
Let’s look at several examples of how the New Leader model can be used to solve everyday challenges across organizations:
- Jesse is expected to create aggressive revenue growth for a major consulting firm. The partners have offered scattered ideas for new business opportunities. Jesse wants to identify and manage strategic, high-growth initiatives and still be responsive to the senior team.
- Phyllis manages an event marketing department of 15 people. She is aware of significant backbiting and rivalry among her team members. She wants to run an effective operation that creates distinctive client activities.
- Amanda is an extremely competent banker. She struggles to handle her current clients and land new ones. It’s clear that robust business growth is key to her success.
- Mike, a senior human resources manager, is eager to make a big impact on the business he supports. He observes that sales growth is modest at best.
Amanda and Jesse are individual contributors, both facing expectations for aggressive business growth. Amanda must build a business in an extremely competitive market. Jesse is a strategist who, for the first time ever, is responsible for generating revenue. He is more comfortable creating analytics than driving the direction of a business.
Similarly, Mike is at a pivotal point in his career--and close to the customer. Can he help to identify the business problems and define his role in solving them? Phyllis’ people are under constant pressure to produce. She wants to initiate new programs, but faces huge resistance. Leaders all, they work to solve business challenges and overcome obstacles. In every case, the personal stakes are high.
Jesse--Steadfast Passion is absolutely critical for Jesse to create aggressive growth for the firm. This hallmark focuses Jesse to build a shared excitement inside the firm and in the external marketplace; to pursue opportunities that are most compelling for the business; and to create a winning situation with those in charge.
As Jesse digs deeper into this hallmark, he will clearly see where he is missing opportunities to advance the business and how he can develop a strategic business plan. He will learn to ask the right questions to define the possibilities. Importantly, he will learn when to stop the analytical process and move into action. Phyllis--Inclusive Culture impacts creativity and results. To develop truly distinctive events, Phyllis needs to build a high-performance team. She must identify several exciting opportunities for her staff, so they can win big. To empower her people, she must believe in them and clearly communicate their role and potential.
Phyllis will learn to support her team and to solicit the help of sales people who are closest to the clients. She needs to appreciate the informal dynamics in her department and to confront dysfunctional behavior. Moreover, she must give people the accountability they need to excel. Amanda--Global Proaction will help her develop an aggressive strategy to build new business and deepen current relationships. She needs to develop very specific goals and deliver tailored solutions for her client base. She should leverage every available resource to help her.
Exceptional execution will be essential. Amanda needs to align the roles and expectations of the team with her business strategy, pinpointing the accountability of everyone involved. She needs to stay focused on what’s important and constantly reevaluate her impact. This hallmark will help her remain focused on an ever-growing client base – determining what business can be captured today and who to target in the future. Mike--Continuous Exploration will help him identify ways to enhance the total customer experience and work with his peers to create value in the marketplace. He must identify new approaches for building the business and translate these ideas into actionable initiatives, such as different sales goals, marketing support, aggressive rewards or a shift in the sales culture and organization. His leadership challenge is to advance the business by creating change and measurable impact.
It’s been my experience that if practiced diligently, the four hallmarks produce extraordinary results. They help leaders move beyond their entrenched roles and practices to unleash the highest potential of their businesses. In turn, their successes and those of their colleagues inspire others to become better leaders.
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Author Bio: Roslyn Courtney consults for Fortune 500 companies, as well as smaller, high-growth companies to develop leaders and produce transformational change. Contact her at roz@rozcourtney.com.
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